ST.  JOSEPH 


Model  of  Fidelity 


A  Paulist  Father 


New  York 

THE  PAULIST  PRESS 
401  West  59th  Street 


Copyright.  1915,  by  “The  Missionary  Society  of 
St.  Paul  the  Apostle  in  the  State 
of  New  York.’' 


“St.  Joseph’s  arms  were  the  cradle  of  Our  Lord's  Infancy  and 

Youth r 


St.  Joseph,  Model  of  Fidelity 


“Who  (thinkegt  thou)  is  that  faithful  and  wise  steward 
who  the  Lord  hath  set  over  his  household?”  (Luke  xii.  42). 

NDERNEATH  the  words  of  our  Lord,  and 
the  simple  narrative  of  His  earthly  life,  there 
lie  concealed  many  mysterious  truths.  These 
can  be  reached  only  by  thinking  much  about 
them:  thus,  when  St.  Gabriel  had  made  known  to  our 
Blessed  Lady  the  mystery  of  the  Incarnation,  she  is  said 
to  have  “  kept  his  zvords  pondering  over  them  in  her 
heart.’1  We  find  an  illustration  of  this  in  the  natural 
world.  Look  up  into  the  sky  on  a  clear  night  and  you 
will  see  thousands  of  bright  stars,  but  do  you 
see  all  that  are  there?  Keep  your  eye  fixed  for  a  few 
moments  longer,  and  one  after  another  the  vacant  spots 
will  fill  up,  until  you  see  double  the  number  you  saw 
at  first.  Take  a  telescope  and  you  will  discover  as  many 
more  which  your  eye,  unaided,  is  unable  to  see.  So  it  is 
in  the  supernatural  world;  some  truths  of  revelation  lie 
upon  the  surface,  others  are  reached  only  by  meditation 
and  study.  There  are  still  others  which  are  reserved  for 
such  as  are  leading  saintly  lives,  as  our  Lord  has  taught 
us  in  saying,  “  Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart  for  they  shall 
see  God 

These  remarks  will  help  us  to  understand  why  St. 
Joseph  who  is  so  much  honored  among  Catholics,  should 
be  practically  unknown  to  Protestants.  Scripture  char 


4 


St.  Joseph,  Model  of  Fidelity 


acters  both  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  furnish 
models  of  Christian  virtues  for  their  pulpits,  but  St. 
Joseph  is  never  among  them.  They  do  not  study  his 
character,  and  pass  him  by  because  so  little  is  said  of  him. 
That  little  said  of  him  in  the  Gospel  is,  however,  enough 
to  establish  his  claim  to  privileges  and  virtues  of  the  high¬ 
est  order.  I  invite  you  to  consider  with  me  some  points 
which  I  think  will  enable  you  to  realize  this. 

St.  Joseph’s  place  among  men  was  an  obscure  one. 
By  descent  indeed  he  was  noble.  He  belonged  to  the 
royal  house  of  David.  But  God  willed  that  he  should  be 
obscure,  and  therefore  stripped  him  of  all  the  circum¬ 
stance  of  nobility.  He  lived  in  retirement,  and  found  his 
occupation  for  the  most  part  in  domestic  duties.  We 
sometimes  hear  of  a  valued  steward  in  a  nobleman’s 
family  whose  integrity  of  character  and  prudence  are 
so  great  that  the  management  of  the  entire  establishment 
is  entrusted  to  his  care.  St.  Joseph  filled  such  a  place 
as  this  in  the  Holy  Family.  His 'associates  were  those 
who  were  his  superiors;  namely,  the  Eternal  Word  made 
Flesh  and  His  Blessed  Mother.  The  constant,  anxious 
care  of  these  was  to  be  the  duty  of  his  life.  He  was  to 
do  nothing  that  would  give  him  a  prominence  among  men. 
The  daily  companion  of  those  two  precious  “  Wards  ”  of 
his,  what  memoirs  he  might  have  written  had  he  lifted 
the  veil  from  these  mysterious  thirty  years  of  their  lives, 
almost  every  hour  of  which  he  could  recall! 

Yet  St.  Joseph  was  not  to  be  an  Evangelist!  Nor 
was  he  an  Apostle.  His  work  was  done  before  our  Lord 
entered  upon  His  ministry.  Nor  was  he  a  martyr ;  either 
in  reality,  by  giving  up  His  life  for  Christ,  or  by  com¬ 
passion  in  the  sense  that  our  Lady  is  called  the  Queen 
of  Martyrs ;  namely,  by  her  sufferings  with  our  Lord  at 


St.  Joseph,  Model  of  Fidelity  5 

the  foot  of  the  cross.  His  responsibility  stood  to  him  in 
lieu  of  martyrdom,  in  virtue  of  which  our  Lord  spared 
him  the  anguish  of  His  Passion.  Love  and  suffering 
seem  to  have  been  inseparable  in  the  Saints,  and  the 
time  came  when  St.  Joseph’s  gentle  spirit  could  no  longer 
bear  its  double  load.  Other  saints  have  experienced  this ; 
as  for  example  St.  Philip  Neri.  Just  before  the  feast  of 
Pentecost^he  was  praying  very  earnestly  for  the  gifts  of 
the  Holy  Spirit.  He  was  alone  in  the  Catacombs,  that 
sanctuary  of  the  martyrs,  underneath  the  city  of  Rome. 
Suddenly  his  soul  became  so  inflamed  with  the  love  of 
God,  that  he  threw  himself  upon  the  ground  and  tore  open 
his  cassock  in  order  to  cool  his  heart,  which  seemed  to  be 
on  fire.  With  love  such  as  this,  St.  Joseph  was  calmly 
consumed ;  and  he  died  as  he  had  lived,  in  obscurity,  and 
known  only  as  the  carpenter  of  Nazareth. 

It  was  to  serve  a  special  purpose  that  our  Lord  made 
St.  Joseph  to  be  thus  obscure  in  station.  He  willed  that 
His  own  honor  should  be  obscure  upon  earth.  The  light 
was  to  shine  in  darkness,  and  the  darkness  was  not  to 
comprehend  it,  as  St.  John  tells  us.  A  chosen  few,  as 
for  example,  the  Shepherds,  the  Wise  Men  from  the  East, 
St.  Elizabeth,  the  infant  St.  John  and  the  holy  old  man 
Simeon,  recognized  in  Him  their  promised  Messias ;  but 
the  Jews  as  a  people  did  not  know  Him.  There  was  in¬ 
deed  to  be  “  a  day  of  His  power  ”  when  He  should  be 
lifted  up  to  the  gaze  of  all  people,  but  it  was  not  in  St. 
Joseph’s  lifetime.  The  Blessed  Virgin,  jealous  of  the  de¬ 
lay,  asked  Him  to  manifest  His  power  at  the  marriage 
feast  in  Cana  of  Galilee,  but  His  answer  was,  "  My  hour 
is  not  yet  come.”  It  was  not  until  the  evening  of  Holy 
Thursday,  just  before  His  arrest  in  the  Garden  of  Geth- 
semane,  that  our  Lord  exclaimed,  "  Father,  the  hour  is 


6  St.  Joseph ,  Model  of  Fidelity 

come?”  Yes,  in  His  Passion  and  Death  He  was  made 
known  to  the  world.  Then  it  was  that  the  Roman  guard 
cried  out,  “Truly  this  was  the  Son  of  God.”  But  all 
through  life  our  Lord  was  hidden,  and  St.  Joseph’s  hum¬ 
ble  station  was  His  concealment.  He  was  the  carpenter’s 
Son. 

Humble  as  was  St.  Joseph’s  place  among  men,  before 
God  he  held  a  very  exalted  one.  He  was  a  steward  to 
whose  care  God  had  committed  His  two  most  precious 
treasures.  The  first  of  these,  in  time,  was  the  Blessed 
Virgin  Mary.  Before  the  altar  in  the  Temple  of  Jeru¬ 
salem  there  stands  a  bride  of  fifteen,  and  her  betrothed 
a  man  of  between  thirty  and  forty  years  of  age.  Never 
has  the  world  seen  a  bride  like  this.  She  is  fairer  than 
Eve  on  the  morning  of  her  creation.  They  mutually 
plight  their  troth,  and  Joseph  and  Mary  of  Nazareth 
are  man  and  wife.  But  there  is  something  peculiar  about 
this  marriage  contract.  Its  bond  is  the  perpetual  virginity 
of  both  parties.  St.  Joseph  is  to  be  a  hedge  set  around 
this  garden  of  the  Lord.  He  binds  himself  to  secure  to 
her  the  vow  she  made  before  that  very  altar  twelve  years 
since.  The  Carmelite,  Ralphael  Maria,  says  of  these  two 
holy  souls,  that  “  their  love  for  one  another  was  the 
Holy  Spirit  Who  dwelt  in  both  their  hearts.”  Ye  angels 
in  heaven !  look  down  with  envy  upon  our  earth,  for  here 
are  souls  with  bodies  which  rival  your  own  purity  who 
have  none. 

So  highly  does  the  Holy  Church  honor  the  state  of  mar¬ 
riage  that  she  has  exalted  it  into  a  sacrament ;  but  there  are 
some  things  of  which  our  Lord  has  said,  "  Whosoever  will 
receive  it  let  him  receive  it.”  This  unearthly  life  is  one  of 
these.  It  has  since  been  copied  in  the  Catholic  Church,  but 
never,  to  my  knowledge,  outside  of  it.  So  lived  Henry  the 


St.  Joseph ,  Model  of  Fidelity 


7 


Second,  Emperor  of  Germany,  with  Cunigunda  his  wife. 
St.  Gregory  of  Tours  tells  us  of  a  nobleman  of  Auvergne, 
in  France,  and  his  wife,  who  embraced  this  mortifica¬ 
tion  in  their  zeal  for  perfection,  and  whose  tombs  came 
miraculously  together,  though  their  bodies  were  buried 
apart.  That  dying  life  of  theirs,  it  would  seem,  had 
anticipated  and  compensated  for  the  separation  of  the 
grave.  Of  them  may  be  said  what  Holy  Scripture  says 
of  Saul  and  Jonathan:  “  They  zvere  lovely  and  comely  in 
their  life,  in  death  they  were  not  divided .”  In  the  most 
perfect  form  of  this  exalted  state  of  marriage  did  St. 
Joseph  live  with  the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary.  Oh,  what 
honor  this  marriage  of  St.  Joseph’s  confers  upon  him! 

You  know  it  is  a  law  both  of  reason  and  of  society, 
that  there  shall  be  a  certain  equality  in  the  condition  of 
betrothed  persons.  What  would  you  think,  for  instance, 
of  the  proposed  marriage  of  a  highly  intellectual  and 
literary  man,  with  a  girl  who  could  neither  read  nor 
write?  She  might  be  a  most  excellent  girl  and  the  pride 
of  her  circle  of  acquaintance,  but  you  could  not  help  ex¬ 
claiming,  “  how  very  unsuitable!”  Or  again,  how  ill- 
assorted  would  be  a  marriage  between  a  lady  of  great 
refinement,  and  a  man  of  rough,  coarse  manners !  In 
the  sight  of  God,  no  doubt,  he  might  be  her  superior,  for 
God  looks  not  upon  the  exterior ;  but  what  sympathy 
could  they  hope  to  find  in  each  other? 

Now  in  point  of  worldly  station  and  parentage,  St. 
Joseph  is  Mary’s  equal;  but  in  grace  she  excels  the  An¬ 
gels.  What,  then,  must  have  been  his  graces  who  was 
chosen  as  the  spouse  of  her  whom  God  chose  for  His 
Mother!  Again,  Our  Lady  gave  to  St.  Joseph  not  her 
hand  alone,  but  her  heart  too.  As  a  proof  of  this,  see 
her  accompany  him  to  Bethlehem  when  there  was  no 


8  St.  Joseph,  Model  of  Fidelity 

obligation  on  her  part,  but  when  it  seemed  most  im¬ 
prudent  that  she  should  leave  her  home  at  all.  She 
seems  not  to  have  been  able  to  bear  his  absence  from  her. 
We  know,  too,  how  gratitude  excites  one  to  love.  What 
fervor  and  vigor,  then,  must  have  been  added  to  Mary’s 
devotion  for  her  husband,  by  the  remembrance  of  those 
protecting  years  from  their  marriage  until  St.  Joseph’s 
death!  She  loves  to  call  him  husband  in  public.  “  Thy 
father  and  I said  she  to  our  Lord  in  the  presence  of  the 
Doctors  in  the  Temple,  "  have  sought  Thee  sorrowing 
Did  he  love  her?  Why,  I  suppose  that  every  word  and 
every  motion  of  that  Child  of  Grace  sent  a  thrill  of  de¬ 
light  to  that  pure  heart  of  his.  Yet  there  was  one  whom 
St.  Joseph  loved  even  more  than  her.  He  loved  God 
above  all  things.  Here  is  an  occasion  on  which  he 
showed  this.  It  is  evident  that  Mary  is  about  to  become 
a  mother.  He  remembers  the  marriage  vow.  He  recalls 
her  conduct  since  then.  Her  love  of  retirement,  her 
modest  demeanor,  her  care  as  to  her  associates,  her  pro¬ 
priety  of  speech ;  how  can  he  reconcile  such  a  fact  with 
all  these  ?  But  a  fact  it  is,  however  inexplicable :  what 
then  shall  he  do?  Must  he  go  a  broken-hearted  exile 
from  a  home  the  ornament  of  which  has  ever  been  the 
beauty  of  holiness :  a  home,  the  dwelling-place  of  perpetual 
peace?  Can  he  stay,  and,  by  his  silence,  countenance 
under  his  own  roof  at  least  the  appearance  of  evil?  Oh 
the  anguish  of  a  struggle  such  as  this !  But  he  must 
choose,  and  the  choice  lies  between  God  and  Mary.  He 
falters  no  longer,  and  it  is  given  to  God.  He  is  prepar¬ 
ing  to  bid  farewell  to  his  wife  and  home,  when  an  Angel 
reveals  to  him  the  mystery  of  the  Incarnation. 

“  Heroic  virtue  and  sublime  philosophy,”  exclaims  St. 
Chrysostom,  “superior  to  all  passion  and  jealousy!” 


St.  Joseph ,  Model  of  Fidelity  9 

Here  is  an  act  of  heroic  sanctity  that  will  compare 
favorably  with  that  of  the  great  St.  Michael.  Lucifer,  by 
his  magnificence,  had  fascinated  tens  of  thousands  from 
among  the  nine  choirs  of  Angels  to  revolt  against  God ; 
when  St.  Michael  stood  up  and  shouted,  “  Quis  ut  Deusf  ” 
“Who  is  like  God?”  For  this,  he  merited  to  lead  the 
hosts  of  Heaven  which  drove  Satan  from  Paradise ; 
and  to  become  the  Standard  Bearer  of  the  Cross  before 
our  Lord,  when  He  shall  appear  in  the  clouds  for  the 
Last  Judgment. 

St.  Joseph  was  the  wise  and  faithful  steward  of  an¬ 
other  still  more  precious  treasure.  The  care  of  the  in¬ 
fancy,  childhood,  youth,  and  the  larger  portion  of  the 
manhood  of  the  “  Only-begotten  of  the  Father,”  was  en¬ 
trusted  to  him.  Without  any  claim  to  paternity,  the 
Eternal  Father  gave  him  a  parent’s  love.  The  life  of  the 
Infant  Redeemer  was  sought  for  even  in  infancy,  and 
what  shall  secure  that  life  except  the  solicitude  of  a 
father’s  protecting  care?  Again,  Jesus  and  His  Blessed 
Mother  must  buffet  with  the  rough  world,  and  under  the 
most  trying  circumstances  preserve  an  immaculate  course 
of  action ;  and  yet  their  path  is  one  of  obedience,  and 
they  are  to  follow  the  guidance  of  a  man.  Who  then 
is  that  wise  and  faithful  steward  who  will  invariably  give 
faultless  direction?  What  a  responsibility  was  this,  and 
what  must  have  been  the  estimation  which  St.  Joseph 
merited  in  the  eyes  of  God,  to  be  put  in  such  a  place  of 
trust? 

Furthermore,  consider  how  exalted  the  privilege  of 
that  familiar  intercourse  which  he  had  with  our  Lord! 
St.  Simeon  was  ready  to  die  with  joy  after  once  holding 
in  his  arms  “  the  Lord’s  Christ,  for  Whose  sake  his  life 
had  been  prolonged  these  many  years.  But  St.  Joseph’s 


10  St.  Joseph ,  Model  of  Fidelity 

arms  were  the  carriage  in  which  He  rode  over  the  desert 
to  and  from  the  land  of  Egypt.  They  were  the  cradle 
of  his  infancy  and  youth.  The  Centurion  felt  himself 
unworthy  of  the  honor  that  Jesus  Christ  should  even 
once  come  under  his  roof  on  a  mission  of  charity.  But 
St.  Joseph’s  cottage  roof  was  His  shelter  for  those  mys¬ 
terious  eighteen  years  of  which  Holy  Scripture  tells  us 
nothing  but  that  our  Lord  was  then  subject  to  St.  Jo¬ 
seph  ;  "  subditus  illis.” 

Our  Lord  tells  us  that  one  standard  of  final  reward 
shall  be  the  care  that  we  have  taken  of  Him  in  the  per¬ 
sons  of  the  faithful.  "  Come  ye  blessed  of  My  Father,” 
He  will  say,  "for  I  was  hungry  and  ye  gave  Me  to  eat , 
I  ivas  thirsty  and  ye  gave  Me  to  drink,  naked  and  ye 
clothed  Me,  sick  and  in  prison  and  ye  visited  Me;  for 
inasmuch  as  ye  have  done  it  to  the  least  of  these  My 
brethren,  ye  have  done  it  unto  Me.”  But  what  shall  be 
his  reward  whose  every  thought  and  effort  was  to  provide 
for  the  very  person  of  Immanuel,  and  His  Immaculate 
Mother!  Oh!  to  live  any  longer  such  a  life  of  devotion 
would  have  been  too  much  honor;  too  much  joy!  Poor 
human  nature  would  need  the  grace  of  the  Beatific  Vi¬ 
sion  to  hold  it  up.  The  people  of  the  village,  as  they 
pass,  hear  no  more  in  that  home  of  industry  the  sound 
of  his  hammer  and  saw.  St.  Joseph  lies  on  his  rude 
bed  in  one  of  the  three  small  rooms  of  that  lowly  cot¬ 
tage.  His  hand  is  clasped  in  Mary’s,  his  eye  is  set  full 
on  the  beautiful  face  of  Jesus,  he  hears  from  the  lips  of 
that  Companion  of  his  toil :  “  Well  done  good  and  faithful 
servant,  go  in  peace,”  and  St.  Joseph’s  probation  is  over. 
Here  we  have  the  answer  to  the  question :  " Who  ( thinkest 
thou)  is  that  wise  and  faithful  steward  whom  the  Lord 
hath  set  over  His  household?  ” 


St.  Joseph,  Model  of  Fidelity  II 

It  is  St.  Joseph.  He  stands  before  us  the  model  of 
the  faithful  steward.  “  Behold  a  faithful  and  wise 
servant,  whom  his  Lord  hath  made  ruler  over  his  house¬ 
hold,”  says  the  Church  of  him  in  the  office  of  his  feast. 
She  lovingly  dwells  upon  the  wondrous  quality  of  fidelity 
in  this  “  man  beloved  of  God  and  men,  wlios&  memorial 
is  blessed.  He  sanctified  him  in  his  faithfulness  and 
meekness  and  chose  him  out  of  all  men,”  and  applies  to 
him  the  words  of  Proverbs  :  “  A  faithf  ul  man  shall  abound 
with  blessings,  and  he  that  guardeth  his  Master  shall  be 
honored .”  How  beautiful,  therefore,  must  be  the  virtue  of 
fidelity,  yet  like  many  other  precious  things,  how  rare  it 
is !  There  are  points  to  be  admired  about  almost  every 
person,  but  how  seldom  is  fidelity,  that  unswerving,  per¬ 
severing,  conscientious  course  of  action,  one  of  them ! 
Like  some  richly  enamelled  porcelain  vase  which  has  a 
blemish,  and  will  not  bear  being  filled  with  water,  so  a 
beautiful  character  has  oftentimes  this  weak  spot  where 
it  gives  way  under  any  unusual  pressure.  What  a  mis¬ 
fortune  this  is!  St.  Joseph  was  no  martyr  in  spilling  his 
blood  for  the  faith,  but  he  exercised  a  martyr’s  fidelity 
to  the  convictions  of  his  conscience  and  the  purity  of  his 
faith.  To  find  God  and  to  be  one  with  God,  a  solitary 
life  in  the  desert  was  not  necessary  to  St.  Joseph.  He 
was  in  the  world,  and  found  God  where  he  was.  He 
sanctified  his  work  by  carrying  God  with  him  into  the 
workshop.  St.  Joseph  found  the  means  of  perfection  in 
the  world,  and  consecrated  it  to  God  by  making  its  cares 
and  duties  subservient  to  divine  purposes.  St.  Joseph’s 
home  was  his  cloister,  and  in  the  bosom  of  his  family 
he  practised  the  sublimest  virtues.  While  occupied  with 
the  common,  daily  duties  of  life,  his  mind  was  fixed  on 
the  contemplation  of  divine  truths,  thus  breathing  into  all 


St.  Joseph ,  Model  of  Fidelity 


¥  «¥ 

T2 

his  actions  a  heavenly  influence.  He  attained  in  society 
and  in  human  relationships  a  degree  of  perfection  not 
surpassed,  if  equaled,  by  the  martyr’s  death,  the  contem¬ 
plative  of  the  solitude,  the  cloistered  monk,  or  the  mis- 
sonary  h-ero. 

Our  age  is  not  an  age  of  martyrdom,  nor  an  age  of  her¬ 
mits,  nor  a  monastic  age.  Although  it  has  its  martyrs, 
its  recluses,  and  its  monastic  communities,  these  are  not, 
and  are  not  likely  to  be,  its  prevailing  types  of  Christian 
perfection.  Our  age  lives  in  its  busy  marts,  in  counting- 
rooms,  in  workshops,  in  homes,  and  in  the  varied  rela¬ 
tions  that  form  human  society,  and  it  is  in  these  that 
sanctity  is  to  be  introduced.  St.  Joseph  stands  forth  as 
an  excellent  and  unsurpassed  model  of  this  type  of  per¬ 
fection. 

In  setting  up  St.  Joseph  before  us,  as  the  model  of  the 
virtue  of  fidelity,  Holy  Church  wishes  to  encourage  us  to 
imitate  him.  She  points  to  his  exalted  virtues  which 
were  built  up  in  the  very  walks  of  life  in  which  God  has 
placed  us.  Fidelity  to  grace  in  our  state  of  life  is  that 
high-road  to  perfection  along  which  we  all  may  walk. 
Let  fidelity  take  root  in  your  households.  Be  faithful, 
husbands,  to  your  wives.  Wives  be  faithful  to  your  hus¬ 
bands.  This  will  bring  peace  and  harmony  to  your 
homes.  Be  faithful,  fathers  and  mothers.  Ah,  God 
has  comrnitted  a  great  trust  to  your  care,  in  those  boys 
and  girls  of  yours.  Be  faithful,  brothers,  sisters  and  chil¬ 
dren.  Home  is  the  very  nursery  of  virtue.  Mechanics, 
be  faithful  at  your  trades.  Domestic  and  laborers,  be 
faithful  in  your  work.  Professional  men,  be  faithful  in 
yottr  practice.  You  will  find  St.  Joseph’s  footprints  all 
aloilg  these  paths.  Follow  him  up  from  this  time  forth. 
'  Put  'yourselves  under  his  patronage.  Be  devout  to  him, 


St.  Joseph ,  Model  of  Fidelity  13 

for  we  naturally,  and  therefore  easily,  imitate  those  whom 
we  love.  Let  us  ask  him  to  get  us  courage  to  be  faith¬ 
ful  to  grace  under  every  variety  of  circumstance ;  that 
on  reaching  our  journey’s  end  we  may  hear  those  con¬ 
soling  words,  “  Well  done ,  good  and  faithful  servant ,  en- 

‘  .*  *  '  .  ,4 

ter  thoU  into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord 

Joy  of  the  Saints !  who  didst  uphold 

Our  life’s  sure  Hope,  the  world’s  one  Stay, 

Joseph!  as  now  thy  praise  is  told, 

Hearken  to  us  in  love  to-day. 

* 

•  The  great  Creator  made  it  thine  .. 

To  be  the  spouse  of  purest  Maid, 

And  father  of  the  Word  Divine 
In  name — salvation’s  work  to  aid. 

Thou  seest  with  joy  in  manger  lie 
The  Saviour  sung  by  seers  of  yore, 

And  Him,  the  Son  of  God  Most  High,  - 

In  lowliness  thou  didst  adore. 

j  1  *  *  .  ,  ». 

The  King  of  kings,  the  Lord  of  all, 

The  God  whom  heaven  in  awe  attends, 

Whose  nod  makes  trembling  demons  fall, 

To  thee  in  meek  submission  bends. 

To  God  Most  High,  the  Three  in  One, 

Be  praise,  Who  gave  such  grace  to  thee, 

He  make  us  win  what  thou  hast  won, 

The  joys  of  life  eternally. 


The  Catholic  World 

THE  NATIONAL  CATHOLIC  MONTHLY 


ESTABLISHED  IN  1865 

A  Magazine  for  Clergy  and  Laity 

flEvery  Catholic  should  know  the  great  social  and  reli¬ 
gious  problems  of  reconstruction. 

^The  Catholic  World  covers  these  problems:  states  the 
principles  that  guide  in  their  solution. 

^Endorsed  by  the  Holy  Father. 

^Recommended  by  the  American  Hierarchy. 


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New  York  City 


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